Mozhan Marnò stars as Samar Navabi on NBC’s number one rated drama, The Blacklist. Marnò is a New York-based film, television and theater actress and writer. She has starred in Seasons 2 and 3 of Netflix’s Emmy-nominated series House of Cards, where her character wasn’t originally planned to be a reoccurring she admits. “The fact of the matter is that it was my 4th audition for House of Cards. It unraveled slowly for me” Like most of us with Netflix accounts, it was a show that she had devoured in a single weekend. She also adapted her screenplay for the stage and it premiered at New York Stage and Film, starring Laura Innes and directed by Kate Whoriskey. Marnò has a B.A. in comparative literature from Barnard College, Columbia University and an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. She is also Fluent in German, French and Farsi, and is our Fall/ Winter 2016 Modern Muse.
Mozhan Marnò stars as Samar Navabi Iranian born agent on the NBC’s hit drama, The Blacklist. “She is a bit of an odd bird, she’s nationless” Mozhan says. Over the course of the last 2 seasons, Samar Navabi delves into her personality outside of the office and what she is like in the course of her life.
As an Actress Marnò’s experience in every television breakdown (casting) are 1 or 2 female characters to every 10 male characters. That makes the landscape of acting in in Hollywood feircely compettive. That is slowly changing as is the writing Mozhan stresses and she loves seeing that. “The more it happens, the more normal it becomes.”
When asked about women trailblazers in her life, Mozhan says there’s a couple; “a year ago I read neapolitan novels by elena ferrante, this woman want’s to remain anonymous because she wants the novels to speak for themselves. She is not only an unbelievably powerful as a writer, and effected me in my own writing; but her description of the plight of the intellectual female and the female body is astounding. And she has come under so much fire for remaining anonymous. I think there is a real resentment by men in the literary world that she is so successful. He success is unbelievable – her books are on every front shelf in every country. Her voice has been ringing quite loudly in my head since May 2015.”
When asked about her outside interests she sighs and responds; “I’m obsessed with mid-century funitrure” And says she would be prepared to give us a tour of the furniture at MoMa. “I just like pretty things.” What attributed to her admiration for design? With a laugh she says “being a tourist” a wink to her California roots.
Marno also admires the women in comedy today including; Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, & Amy Poehler. She plans to produce and direct more stories. Though she is a fiercely focused on the business side of things, she is also ready to enjoy life more. This includes settling into her life more by teaching, perhaps in a drama school or another way. Finding lessons in her own challenges and mistakes would allow her to impart some wisdom to others.
She is willing to step into a leadership role, and ready to lead by example when the opportunity is there. “If you see women in positions of leadership, more people are going to think that is possible.” From Hillary Clinton’s race to the white house to a journalist friend who deserves a better/fair pay raise. The more this happens the more the younger generations will think this is possible.
“At one point it use to be a big deal that women went to college, but now it is not a big deal. How wonderful is that?”